African-Americans are worse off relative to their white counterparts, states the 2011 State of Black America report released on Thursday by the National Urban League (NUL).
The report, which addresses a variety of issues and their solutions, finds that Black America fell to 71.5 percent on the equality index in 2011 compared to a revised index last year of 72.1 percent.
“We have seen growing inequality in the poverty rate, the home ownership rate, educational attainment … and school enrollment rates,” since the equality index was added to the annual report in 2005, Marc H. Morial, President and CEO of NUL said.
Blacks also lag behind whites in other areas such as economics and social justice, with rates of 56.9 percent and 58 percent respectively. African-Americans also fall behind in areas of health and education.
As regards income, the reports points out that blacks continue to earn less than whites. In 2009, the median annual income for a black household was $33,463; whites earned $54,671 in the same year.
Meanwhile, unemployment among African-Americans remains a high 16 percent, while the jobless rate for whites is around 8.8 percent, below the national rate.
Morial believes that whatever is done should be focused on job creation and that targeted solutions should be employed, in view of the structural changes that have taken place in the economy.
